This week, Hamas and Palestinian groups responded to mediators Egypt and Qatar for a ceasefire plan for Gaza, the Egyptian and Qatari government said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. While the statement from Hamas was not disclosed, Hamas reportedly proposed a new timeline for a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, including Rafah. A Hamas official said that the “ball is now in the Israeli courtyard.”
On Friday, US President Joe Biden had laid out a “three-phase” Israeli proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza. But on Thursday, the president said he was not confident that an agreement on a Gaza ceasefire deal would be reached soon. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US, Qatar, Egypt, and Israel will work “with urgency” in the coming days to see if they can bridge gaps in a possible ceasefire deal.
Jeremy Kuzmarov, an author and the managing editor of Covert Action magazine joined Sputnik’s The Final Countdown on Wednesday to offer his views on the ceasefire deal. When asked what the Israeli response to a possible ceasefire deal will be, Kuzmarov suggested that the Israelis won’t budge on their position any time soon.
“Firstly, for political reasons, Netanyahu wanted this war and I think wants it to continue. If the war ends, he's in the hot seat really and that could be the end for him - and he's facing potential jail time. So this war helps sustain his political career,” said Kuzmarov.
“Also, the Israeli hardliners, they really wanted to crush the Palestinians and they felt confident that they could do that. And they have ample weapons being supplied from the US. So they don't really have the incentive to end the war, because at this point, it wouldn't be a victory for Israel,” he added. “Hamas is still around.”
The ceasefire deal was reportedly outlined by the US president, said Sputnik’s Angie Wong. The plan would include an immediate to temporary ceasefire following the release of hostages, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from “populated” areas of Gaza.
“I think Israel wants to really take that area over. They have ambitions for that area,” the show’s guest explained. “I think that was always the ambition of the Likud movement and the hardliners in Israel to push for a greater Israel and more cooperation of the occupied territories into Israel, and direct rule over them and to expand Israel's power and domain in the region,” the author said.
“And they've been aggressively attacking neighboring countries like Lebanon, like Syria. They seem to want a war against Iran as well and they may want to expand Israel's territorial power in the Middle East,” he added. “And they are kind of ultra-militarists. They're not shy about using military force and they don't really want to pull those forces back. They want to pursue their goals, whatever the human cost.”
A UN inquiry alleged that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the early stages of the war in Gaza, The Times of Israel reported. Independent experts conducted two parallel reports which focused on the October 7 Hamas attack and Israel’s military offensive in Gaza. The report also found that Israel’s actions should be constituted as war crimes against humanity because of the immense number of civilians who have been killed in the war.
“The commission found that the crimes against humanity of extermination; murder; gender persecution targeting Palestinian men and boys; forcible transfer; and torture and inhuman and cruel treatment were committed,” the report found.
“Firstly, the violence is disproportionate. Yes, Hamas committed atrocities on October 7th that should be condemned but Israel has killed at least 30,000 Gazans,” Kuzmarov said, referring to the number, provided by the Gaza Health Ministry. “So, the scale of atrocities is obviously much higher on the Israeli side, and that's what even people who supported Israel's right to self-defense have been now speaking out against because they say Israel's response is disproportionate.”
“I think [October 7 is] horrible. [These] were kids going to a rock concert who got killed and that's horrific. But, there's a historical context that the Israelis don't even acknowledge, and that is the context of occupation and colonization,” he added. “The long history of human rights abuses and draconian imprisonment of political activists, political actors in Gaza in jails [...] these are just some of the abuses the Israelis have committed. That's going to trigger a backlash inevitably.”
“The horrific bloodshed and suffering of these Gazan and Palestinian populations doesn't really strike the consciousness of most Israelis,” Kuzmarov suggested. “I mean, there is a small peace movement in Israel, and that may be true of the Jewish community in North America.”